The Val Barker Trophy is presented every four years to the most "outstanding boxer" at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. In theory, the award goes to the top "

pound for pound Pound for pound is a ranking used in combat sports, such as boxing, wrestling, or mixed martial arts, of who the better fighters are irrespective of their weight, i.e. adjusted to compensate for weight class. As these fighters do not compete direc ...

" boxer in the Olympics. The winner is selected by a committee of

International Boxing Association (amateur) The International Boxing Association (IBA), previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), is an independent sport organization that sanctions amateur (Olympic-style) boxing matches and awards world and subordinate cha ...

(AIBA) officials. The trophy is named after British boxer Val Barker who won the Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABA) heavyweight title in 1891, before becoming the secretary of the AIBA between 1926 and 1929. The inaugural recipient of the Val Barker Trophy was American flyweight

Louis Laurie Louis Daniel Laurie (November 19, 1917 – December 26, 2002) was an American professional boxer who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. In 1936, he won the bronze medal in the flyweight class after winning the third-place fight again ...

who won bronze at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

in Berlin. He is one of just three boxers who did not win gold at the same Olympics in which they were presented with the trophy, the others being Kenyan featherweight

Philip Waruinge Philip Waruinge (3 February 1945 – 19 October 2022) was a Kenyan professional boxer, who competed in the featherweight division (– 57 kg) during his career as an amateur. Personal life Philip Waruinge was born on 3 February 1945 ...

(bronze at the 1968 Games) and American light middleweight

Roy Jones Jr. Roy Levesta Jones Jr. (born January 16, 1969) is an American former professional boxer who holds dual American and Russian citizenship. He competed in boxing from 1989 to 2018, and held multiple world championships in four weight classes, inc ...

(silver at the 1988 Games). American boxers are the most successful with six awards, while Kazakhstani boxers have won the trophy on three occasions. In the 2016 Games, two Val Barker Trophies were presented for the first time, one for men and one for women; women's boxing made its Olympic debut the previous Games in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

. The inaugural female winner was middleweight

Claressa Shields Claressa Maria Shields (born March 17, 1995) is an American professional boxer and mixed martial artist. She has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the undisputed female light middleweight title since March 2021 ...

who became the first American boxer to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals when she defeated Dutch boxer

Nouchka Fontijn Nouchka Fontijn (; born 9 November 1987) is a retired Dutch boxer. She is the current European champion in the women's middleweight or 75 kg class after winning gold at both the European Games in 2015 and the European Championships in 2014 ...

in Rio de Janeiro.

Recipients

References

External links

Winners of the Val Barker Trophy
at SportsReference.com {{featured list Boxing at the Summer Olympics Awards established in 1936 Boxing awards